Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 22.djvu/472

456 both sides, but the meaning intended to be conveyed is beyond the interpreting powers of the writer, nor does he know of any explanation having been attempted.

From the remains here described, and from others found in the cemetery, for such the locality undoubtedly was, we can form some



idea of the habits of the people. They were warlike, yet agricultural, hunters as well as fishermen. They killed the bear, deer, elk, beaver, raccoon, and other animals of the forest, for the remains of all are quite abundant. They ate the shell-fish of the Little Miami River, and caught fish with hooks and nets. They raised corn, as well as tobacco, in quantities. They wove matting, made fish-nets, and perhaps blankets. They ornamented themselves with necklaces of bone and shell beads, bear and beaver teeth. They dressed in skins, prepared with horn and stone implements. They painted their bodies, as cakes of paint testify. They had commercial intercourse, or some system of barter, with Lake Superior and the Gulf, or the Atlantic. They were frequently embroiled in wars with neighboring tribes. They could hardly have been far advanced in civilization, if bone implements instead of stone is any indication. They had no written language, but yet left some record of their existence in the shape of carved bones and inscribed stones. Finally, if the burial of vessels containing food for the dead be any indication, they had some idea of a future life. Much further than this in their history we can not go.

The attention of the reader has been repeatedly called to the similarity between the implements found in this "Cincinnati" cemetery and those found in the Swiss lakes. No one could claim that, because of this similarity and almost identity of forms, the two races of people ever had intercourse with each other. But the fact is interesting as showing how, in two countries, thousands of miles apart, and separated by a period of hundreds of years in time, there were made, with the same materials, the same forms of weapons and implements. The resemblance is no argument for a common origin, but simply shows that nearly the same grade of civilization may be developed spontaneously in two widely separated countries.

It now becomes an interesting matter of speculation to discover the age of the cemetery. It has been referred to the age of the mound-builders, but, if so, it is a most remarkable fact, unless we